Carnival (story)
Esaias looked over the mess covering the work table. There were feathers, sequins, silk, tulle and beads all over the place, with hints of felt and cardboard barely visible underneath. “David, if you’re making a hat out of this, it’ll be your strangest one to date. Are you making a hat out of this?” David looked up from a collection of purple feathers, stray sequins stuck to his face. “You’re making it more tempting than ever, but no, I am not making a hat this time.” “A cat toy for Nathan then?” Esaias joked. Unfortunately, David didn’t seem to get the fun. “He’s a human being Esa.” “A human being that sleeps in front of the fire, hunts birds and got a tail.” “It’s not a cat tail though. Cat tails are furry all over, not just tufted at the end.” “He wiggles his butt when he hunts birds.” “That he does.” David amended, a faraway look on his face. Esaias decided that was quite enough on that line of thinking and changed track. “So, what is it that you’re doing then?” This got David’s attention snapped right back, and he held up a sequined mess in front of him. “Carnival masks!” “Carnival masks?” “Carnival masks. You know, for parties. They’re going to have one on New Year’s Eve up by the old school house.” Esaias studied the mask he was presented with. It wasn’t of cardboard and felt but a harder material that had to be some kind of pre-made mask base that would hide the entire face. David had covered it with sequins, glued them on like scales and making patterns with the colors. Sequin-adorned feathers seemed to grow out of the sides and hid bands of tulle to tie the mask with. It was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen, which was made all the more sad by how many hours of work that must’ve gone into making it. “So you’re actually going to wear this at a party? Word of wisdom, if Nathan sees you in this he’ll chew your face off just to get to the feathers.” Aaaand that was a mental image he could have done without. “Err, actually-” The way David seemed to direct the sentence to the feathers he was still holding made all of Esaias’ warning bells go off. A premonition cleared it’s throat and presented itself. Oh no. No. No way. “I am not wearing- I mean, I’m not going to a party. Oh, fine, apparently I will go to a party but I don’t want to.” There would be horrible music. People he didn’t know. David and Nathan whom he did know but whom would be busy giving each other strange looks ripe with drawn-out sexual tension and Eva would be wearing a dress that went so far up her legs that his mouth went dry. Esaias blinked and reinstated himself in present time. “On second thought, a party would be great. Terrific actually. And I owe you for the mask so here’s a heads up – you will have to keep a close eye on Nathan, there will be alcohol all over the place and I don’t think Mr. Raised-in-a-Cage should drunk in public.” ---- As it turned out, the snippet of music Esaias had heard in his premonition wasn’t even the worst the party had to offer. Most of the other guests were either way older or way younger that he was, and David been awkwardly Not Fawning over Nathan who was Not Flirting while the general effect was more or less the same as if they had been. Esaias had enlarged the mouth-hole of the mask a bit though, so that he could sip the designated driver’s non-alcoholic cider through a straw. That helped immensely for the dry mouth, and he really did owe David for the face-covering mask, as Eva tried to tug the dress down over her legs and up past her cleavage at the same time and not quite managing either. “I swear, this dress was not this small in the store! Shoot, I look like a prostitute and those guys are already eyeing me. Esa, I know this is like a ridiculous thing to ask of someone but could you help a friend and pretend to be my date for tonight? I’d ask David but his not-boyfriend has fangs.” On second thought, Esaias owed David a month worth of favors. He might even have to set David up with Nathan. As wrong as that felt, it seemed fair. Category:All Pages Category:World 29 Category:Stories Category:Short stories Category:Complete Stories Category:Needs a picture